Shadows of the Ascendancy

You all are swept up rapidly by the rescue special forces unit as commandos in odd heavy dark grey colored powered suits lay down heavy fire from the treeline. Without introductions the officer in charge orders his men to have the p’w’ecks subdued immediately and linked together in a chain gang with power cuffs. This percaution is unavoidable even with a high persuasion check although he still does listen to whatever you would say on the P’w’ecks behalf, but short of full combat the restraining will occur.
“Special Agent Jace? Tyco Inrokini sends his warmest regards and requests your presence in the city hall board room upon your return. As for the current status of the war front I am authorized to update you on the current state of war. We have lost all of the ground leading right up to the city of Senco’s gates. Admiral Kethiss is fairing only slightly better in his space campaign and still holds the space over the major cities on the planet, but now that we are not just fighting the P’w’ecks and droids, the fighting has become even more intense on all fronts. The larger Ssi have proven to be a more apt fighting force with better tactics and seem to be able to utterly control the p’w’ecks. I wil also say…” He looks over annoyingly at the P’w’ecks who are avoiding eye contact with all but you Jace and Tyr. He motions and the P’w’ecks are led away into a detention cell onboard the transport you are riding in. “I will say that we are working on a few strategies and technologies that might help us in this fight. We are working on Comms jamming tech that can flood an area and disrupt even tight beam comms and white noise generators that are flooding all comms channels with a high energy wavelength that makes any meaningful comms pointless. We are doing to them what they are doing to us, only better. We are also working on other strategies that i will not divulge that may well turn the tide of this war. Any questions?”

With your characters recovering after the crash landing of the Ssi transport, you all hear the buzzing of distant Ssi ion engines and see the contrails break off into three distinct ships heading right for your location. You all agree to vouch for the p’w’ecks and then set off into two groups. With Heavy foliage and intervening canopy blocking sensors and visual scanners the Ssi deploy defoliants to the entire crash site and all surrounding terrain which effectively reduces that section of the forest in seconds. One of the transports hovers over the transport, which thanks to Jace’s familiarity with the Ssi tech, has been set to not only have roaming heat signatures inside the crashed transport and have its thrusters activate on timer, it was also set to have its engines overloaded, a sort of simple self destruct. The other two transports seem to track the general movements of the two parties (the main group party and the p’w’ecks/Frendo/T’sa/Sa’keth party). Battles ensue between Ssi forces and the two respective parties and the crashed transport detonates while being boarded by the third transport, destroying both ships. The initial fight was with a group of salvage and quick response p’w’ecks led to rescue the p’w’eck and secure the "cargo of the crashed ship. This party was led by a red scale ssi who quickly adapted tactics when he spotted the “cargo” alive and well and went on the attack. A battle ensued but the ssi forces were overcome quickly and its leader was subdued and in an interesting turn of events, was saved by Jace and allowed to live in exchange for the immediate departure of the Ssi and the controller bracelet of the stegosaurus droid (Droideka). After they all depart the party makes for the treeline when Xan spots 4 redscaled Ssi standing at the treeline, one donning the flamboyant headdress that was seen on Karakiss by Jace and Tyr that signifies him as a champion of the invasion force. The party makes for the treeline away from the Ssi but they quickly realize that the Ssi, who had given chase, were much faster and instead set up in the clearing and lobbed heavy weapon fire at the charging Ssi champion and his guard. The fight was intense but quick and due to masterful tactics, the use of effective force powers and a bit of luck the tables were turned on the Ssis and the champion was forced to flee. The group came under heavy fire from Ssi reinforcements from the transport until the groups ships came to their rescue, along with a Chiss quick reaction force, send specifically to rescue the party. Excellent game everyone!!

Great game everyone! The PCs got to take control of a P’w’eck Spec OPS squad on a special assignment from Sel. They ambushed a roving Chiss patrol and requisitioned the Chiss equipment. While en route to the Chiss research station to secure the Chiss strike group, they encountered strange river beasts which took advantage of the awkward flying P’w’ecks. After that encounter, the squad made their way to the research station’s supply bay where they encountered droid commanding green scaled p’w’ecs who were dispatched of in short order albiet after a bit of diplomatic toying. Finding out the targets had been moved, the squad pursued their lead to the main base and with the distraction of the consecration ritual made their way to the landing bay and made contact with the green scale who was going to help the squad take positive control of the cargo vessel, which was destined to return to the fleet. After a bit of diplomacy and grovelling they managed to get rid of the red scaled Ssi who where tormenting the green scale and made off with the ship and her cargo who were secured in stasis, only to come under fire and get shot down by Chiss planetary defense cannons.

XP = 2,000
Credits = 3,000

Your characters awaken to a scary scenario albeit hazy. You are all in stasis chambers and restrained, slipping in and out of consciousness. Through the looking glass the strange transport you find yourself in, appears to be crashing. It jars and tumbles violently for what feels like an eternity before finally skids to a stop. As you come too more of your senses you see a small blue face of a P’w’eck appear on the other side of the glass. It looks each of you over for only a second before your pods open. It has two other red scaled p’w’ecks undue your restraints. You are all standing there in front of a squad of p’w’ecks armed with Chiss tech, looking just as shell shocked and bewildered as you do. “Hello” one small p’w’eck says in broken common from the side…

The Landspeeder makes a sudden dip into the river and before you emerges a light which grows as an optically hidden door seems to open reveling a flooded chamber. Karakiss lands the speeder and doors shut behind you and powerful jets purge the water from the chamber. Karakiss opens the door and proceeds through another doorway, which seems to lead into a long tube. The tube seems to be see through and reveals the near crystal clear waters and the various creatures swimming in the river, though you do not remember seeing the station from the outside. He proceeds down the hallway, carrying Tyr, and enters another room. This room only has a single portal through which the outside water can be viewed. This section is mostly buried in the river bed, but the dome was also not visible from the outside. This chamber is a large circle with 4 total passageways spaced evenly around the circle. There are computer terminals and in one of the sections against the wall between doors seems to be a makeshift camp complete with hammock and what appears to be various chiss made weapons and other military items arranged neatly in rows. various Ssi-ruuvi datapads are strewn about as well. He looks back at Jace and says in broken common, “Welllllcooom”. He motions to your translator with a flicker of excitement. What would you like to say Jace?

This session was dominated by the massive ambush along the River Sasha’til. First came the droids that were easy enough to dispatch, but when Xan pursued his instincts into the brush he happened upon the predatory Karakiss who sprung into action. Despite their best efforts and teamwork, even the heroes were unable to pacify this threat as each was dispatched in time save for Jace and Tyr. In an interesting turn of events and thanks to the diplomatic whiles of Jace, Karakiss was forced into a conversation of sorts. With the translators developed by Dr Lucian in full display to the champion of the Ssi-ruuvi invasion force and a commanding and persuasive tone, Jace was able to avoid further bloodshed and agreed to go with Karakiss peacefully. Upon agreeing to the surrender of sorts, a dropsship appear overhead and land, spewing forth its contents of P’w’ecks and droids. the party is gathered up aside from Tyr and Jace and placed in the dropship, whereas Jace and the seemingly unconscious Tyr accompany Karakiss on his landspeeder. He speeds away and seems to have a long conversation with someone. At the end of the conversation the dropship carrying the group seems to take position at the flank of the speeder and follows it to the aquatic research center.

Not zipping around Csaus on a speeder bike has made you realize just how miserable this planet is, despite its aesthetic beauty. Diminutive flying reptiles swarm in clouds like insects on other planets and have evolved tiny horns with which to extract blood from their overwhelmed victims. Loud bellowing from some unknown aquatic creatures can be heard up and down the river at your backs as cat sized flying primates cackle and call. The cacophony of sounds is almost deafening and the reptiles biting would normally be at the forefront of your minds but not today. Today a dangerous foe is stalking you. You can feel the eyes of intelligence upon you. Tyr manages to decode the recording device on the now deceased Chiss spec ops agent and begins playback…

“Record# 01-45 2200GST 05/12/13ABY -Agent 569
///Begin Recording///
This is Field Agent Shinto’secan and this is my first recording on a new data disc. My mission is classified so if you find this and are listening please STOP if you do not possess at least level 7 clearance. hand this data disc into the Chiss ascendancy immediately… (5 minute pause). Now the mission is to investigate strange reports of non-natural earthquakes in enemy territory. My team currently consists of 9 members. We are blessed to have been joined by three outsiders one of which appears to be a member of the famed Jedi order, another is a strange and quiet red skinned humanoid dressed in black and the other is a energetic albeit grumpy lizard like humanoid. We engaged a droid patrol after one of our members was unable to keep quiet and was detected. The firefight was quick and easy, particularly with the help of the new members, but the Jedi was concerned that our position was compromised and he urged us to continue moving despite having some droids that we could slice and loot. Anyways, after only about 30 minutes, we were still moving fast when we noticed some movement up ahead in a clearing. It was a strange sight. A rather large red colored ssi-ruuvi was standing there in the opening, one of his rifles at his back but not raised, looking right at us. Of course we raised our weapons and began to fire. We layed it down HEAVY. I mean HEAVY. Well… all except the Jedi and the red man who just stood there. The Jedi seemed shaken somewhat and the red man was just watching the jedi, looking as confused as we were. When the smoke cleared nothing remained. Not a charred body or wounded figure crawling to safety, just tracks leading away. I gave the order to pursue. As we reached the treeline, the Ssi-ruuvi’s band attacked. They attacked fast, using the foliage as cover and dropped 2 of my men before we were finally able to drive them off and only after the Jedi and the red man intervened with their glowing swords. With two members dead we needed to dig in and here we are. It is raining again tonight. It always rains at night. Agent Shinto OUT.”

“Record# 02-45 2000GST 05/13/13ABY -Agent 569
Our team is exhausted. Since my last recording, things have progressed from bad to worse. Last night was a sleepless one. We were attacked by droids. This time the droids seemed to focus efforts on the jedi and the red man but were easily taken out, it just took time. Then we saw “him” again. The red Ssi-ruuvi appeared but this time we were not able to form up and bring our blasters to bear. he engaged us in hand-to-hand. His strikes were blindingly fast and his movements made him almost impossible to hit, even at point blank range! The Jedi and red man engaged him and sustained heavy damage, while inflicting seemingly minimal damage onto him. After what felt like an eternity of us fighting against one target in an instant it switched targets to one of my other men, and within seconds bit right trough his neck and pulled off his head. “He” darted into the tree line to disappear after a short pursuit. The day has been restless and after our speeders were sabotaged the little reptilian fellow has been trying to repair them. He appears without warning and hit us and darts back, not to be seen for hours. The little reptile was able to sneak up on him tho and between his heavy blaster fire and the red mans quick movements they were able to wound the ssi. We have not seen him now for hours. Perhpas he has retreated. It has been a long day… Agent Shinto OUT."

“Record# 03-45 2200GST 05/14/13ABY -Agent 569
Last night “he” returned… While we were trying to finally get some sleep the guard screamed out for us all to wake up. We did and found one of our group laying next to us had been decapitated. His head was gone and the blood dripped between me and the red man. We must have gotten some sleep but what the hell!?!?! (He sounds exhausted and demoralized) One of the team is from Csaus and tells us of a underwater research station that would have provisions, medical supplies and more importantly transport. I have made the decision to travel to this station and obtain transport so we can figure out what is going on and get back into Chiss controlled territory. We have been moving toward the river system ultimately we are heading for coordinates X12334 Y5454590 Z232458. Shinto out."

“Record# 04-45 2100GST 05/15/13ABY -Agent 569
More droids. The Jedi and red man are quiet now and the little reptile is clearly shaken. Hell we all are. We lost another member last night. He was sleeping when some reptilian creature came up from the river and clamped on his head and did a death roll… We were not even able to kill the creature as it returned to the river. I can just see the Ssi bastard laughing as we loose our members to the natural animals here. I hate him! We were going to construct a float but now we are constantly harassed by the Ssi. Paddlebeam fire erupts from the treeline at random intervals right when we are about to sleep. I am the only chiss remaining now and i cant help but think i am next. Why hasn’t he killed the other non-chiss. Must hate us. I hate him…” just then his eyes go wide as a pair of claws puncture through the front of the chest from behind. His eyes slowly turn to meet the face of a Ssi staring at him. They look at each other for a few seconds before his eyes turn to the distance as if he wanted to warn his teammates but then the Ssi grabbed his neck with its teeth and ripped to the side and darted past him as his body hit the floor.

This session began with the PCs heading into the wilds of Csaus 1 to meet with a mysterious black-scaled P’Weck named simply “Mir”. The meeting location ended up being more than just a massive lone tree in the middle of a meadow. A huge Csaus dragon had made its home there and beset upon the PCs once they approached the tree. After a long and bloody battle and with two PCs having been swallowed hole the party regroups and sees a flare launch from the tree. They cautiously approach to find Mir who then proceeds to discuss terms of a dubious agreement between the little seemingly autonomous P’Weck and the group information for future assistance. The P’Weck tells the group that the key to halting the invasion is in killing or otherwise stopping a red-scaled (read warrior caste) Ssi-ruuvi champion named “Karakiss”. Karakiss is an oddity in that he insists on being on the vanguard of every invasion, even before the planet has had a chance to be sanctified. Killing him will severely weaken Admiral Sii’Luve in the eyes of his Ssi-ruuvi Command who do not seem to be very pleased with the Admirals actions… The meeting concluded with a general location to the previous strike group consisting of T’sa, Sa’Keth and Frendo’maw being relayed and the PCs racing off to assist their longtime friends and allies. Upon reaching the coordinats hee PCs do not find them at that location. They decide to search the surrounding jungle and after only a few minutes they find the others when they other bursts out from the heavy foliage yelling obscenities and shooting seemingly blindly into the jungle beind them attempting in vain to hit an unknown foe. Upon seeing their friends T’sa and Frendo’maw proceed to tell the group that their group had been attacked by a huge red-scaled Ssi-ruuvi who easily defeated Frendo’maw in an honorable, one-on-one melee fight. The group raced back with the PCs to their speeders only to find they had been destroyed. Utterly demoralized the other group broke down, as if giving up. Their terrified faces were finally overcome with exhaustion and fell asleep after not having slept in what appears to be days. The group not sits at the edge of the huge river delta with word that a underwater research station seems to be the next logical destination to get supplies and speeders to return to the fight…

The group met with the Senco Administrator, a rather built Chiss named Tyco Inrokini. He was busy running the city but asked that the group go on a mission to scout out what the Ssi-Ruuvi are doing deep in Ssi-Ruuvi controlled territory. The Chiss have been able to detect a lot of tighbeam communication activity in two locations and Tyco had sent a group (consisting of Frendo’maw and T’sa) to investigate but have not heard back from them in days. The group also discovered that global temperatures have been steadily and rapidly raising (about 0.5 C in three days). They set out after agreeing to also set up a series of tight beam repeaters to improve communication in the field. They head to the forward-most defense bunker and meet with the Chiss in charge there, LT Sosenta and get set to stay the night before heading out in the morning. At sundown, not long after the group arrives they are attacked by the Ssi. The comms tower and shield generator is sabotaged by a black scaled P’weck and a strike team consisting of p’wecks and droids led by a single Ss-Ruuvi officer attack the compound with nerve gas. After a tough fight the group emerges victorious after using the specially made translators to confuse and force the p’wecks to surrender after the Ssi officer is killed. The group decides to spare the p’wecks although one does not accept that the PCs are gods and tries to blow himself up in protest (although the wookiee grapples and beats him unconscious). The other two remaining p’weck commandos agree to give the PCs info and show them how to control the turret droid. The group asks the Chiss at the station to watch over the p’weck POWs and to send the droid into Senco for research purposes. The group then gets ready to head out to meet the black scaled p’weck in the forest inside Ssi-ruuvi controlled territory…

Csaus 1

The memories of the news feed from the fall of the Rhigar system is still fresh in your minds… the Chiss female reporter’s face is burned into your memory, her face twisted with an expression of true and unmitigated pain. The surprise attack on the military academy where she was getting an interview from cadets seemed almost surreal. The Ssi-ruuvi landing craft streaked across the field of vision on screen, the canisters landing amidst the drilling cadets and reporter paralyzing everyone. As the camera fell to the ground the Ssi-battle droids descended from the clouds as the Chiss reporter and the cadets all struggled to fight the nerve agent’s effects. In clear view of the upturned camera, he droids brandished odd pole arms arching with energy. Slowly and methodically the droids went Chiss to Chiss, using the polearms to fuse each spine to include the reporter. Each was then scooped up and the camera feed terminated as a clawed food smached the recording device. Your stomachs turned knowing that her, like so many other Chiss on Rhigar and Chaf have, in all likelihood, already succumbed to a fate much worse than death, you descend into Csaus 1’s atmosphere. The lush landscape is the equal of any artistic rendition, but the peaceful looking landscape belies the heavy fighting and suffering emminating from the surface. Streaks of green, blue and red light lash suddenly at random intervals on the surface leading to the obvious conclusion that fighting on the ground is fierce and ongoing. Large craters are scattered in and around the major city of Senco, a marvel of architecture with large vertical skyscrapers that are built in such a way as to funnel and control light in beautiful ways and also where you have been granted access to pass through the shield generator, obviously the only reason the city is still standing at all. The brilliant pink sky above also betrays the ferocious skirmishes occurring between the brutal Ssi-ruuvi Admiral Sii’Luve and the Chiss Admiral Kethiss. For the moment, the Chiss fleet seems to have moved the lines of scrimmage to cover and protect the city from orbital bombardment, at least for the time being…